The Nature of Learner Language Ellis, Rod. Second Language Acquisition

1. The Nature of Learner LanguageEllis, Rod. Second Language Acquisition AnizaFebrikuvi 2201410048

2. Second language acquisition : • Collecting • Describing

3. Description may focus on : • the kinds of errors learners make, • how these errors change overtime, or • identify developmental patterns by describing the stages in acquisition of particular grammatical features

4. Errors and Error Analysis • A conspicuous feature of learner language • Useful for teachers to know what errors learners make • Paradoxically, may actually help learners to learn when they self-correct the errors they make

5. Three steps in analyzing learners errors : • Identifying errors • Describing errors • Explaining errors

6. 1. Identifying Errors a. Compare the sentence learner with the normal or correct. • A man and a little boy was watching him. The word was should be replaced by were. • The big of them contained a snake. The word big should be replaced by bigger.

7. b. Distinguish errors and mistakes Error : reflect gaps in a learner’s knowledge, the learner doesn’t know the correct (make mistakes consistently) Mistakes :reflect occasional lapses in performance, the learner is unable to show what he knows (e.g.: slip of the tongue)

8. How can we distinguish errors and mistakes? Example : In the first, the learner said “The big of them contained a snake.” But, in the second, he said “The basket contain a snake.” The learner did a mistake because he didn’t say the word contain consistently.

9. 2. Describing Errors • Classify errors into grammatical categories Ex.: error in tenses I go to market yesterday. (went) • Identify general ways in which the learners’ utterances differ from the reconstructed target-language utterances. There may be omission, misinformation, and misordering.

10. 3. Explaining errors • Error of omissions ( leave out the articles ‘a’ and ‘the’ or plural marker) • Overgeneralization errors ( use ‘eated’ instead ‘ate’) Those all are transfer errors ( because of their mother tongue)

11. Developmental Patterns • The early stages of L2 acquisition Silent period : say nothing about what they want • The order of acquisition accuracy order : rank the features according to how accurately each features are used. • Sequence of acquisition

13. Variability in Learner Language Linguistic context • The choice of past tense marker • Involve some other constituent of the utterance (using adverb : use usually in past event) • Use the verb of to be ( may be omitted)

14. Situational context • Informal (use colloquial expression) My kid’s real pain these days. 2. Formal (use the correct target language) My daughter can be very troublesome these days.

15. Psycholinguistic context • Use the opportunity to plan their production. • Perform or whether reflect the underlying system they are trying to construct. Form-function mapping : negative expressions ( ‘no’+ verb or ‘don’t’ + verb )

16. Free variation Occurs in different stage of development Example : use simple form (paint) for a variety function (future, simple even past) => fossilization : stop developing while still short of target language competence.

17. Thank you..